Description

Soil / Climate: Prefers moist, fertile soils. Elderberry is found mostly throughout the eastern and midwestern United States.

Notes: The Elderberry has oblong to oval leaves that turn greenish-yellow in the fall. White, fragarant flowers which can be washed, shaken dry, stripped from stems and beaten into batters for pancakes, waffles and muffins. Berries are small, purple-black color, and have a pleasant taste. The berries ripen in late July through September. An easy way to improve the flavor of mature elderberries is to dry them in the sun or oven. The juice is often used for making wines and jellies. Mix elderberries with apples to make an outstanding jelly. Two year old shoots will produce fruit, which persists into early fall. Each berry contains from 3-5 seeds. These seeds are dispersed by birds and mammals ingesting them. The larger stems were once fashioned into arrows. Periodic pruning is recommended. Planting multiple shrubs for best results for fruiting.

Wildlife: Fruit is eaten by turkey, woodpeckers, and many others. Deer are known to browse the twigs while pheasant and quail use it’s partial shade as a feeding and loafing area for their broods of young.

Cold Stream Farm supplies Black Elderberry shrubs which are grown as bare root seedlings and transplants and sold both wholesale and retail with no minimum order.